More likely to become obese?

I don't ply them with sweets or chocolate, but they do like baking cakes with me. I ration treats and offer healthy snacks before they can have ice cream or biscuits. None of them are overweight - they'd have to stop bouncing around for that to happen. I think they eat more variety with me because I don't buy junk snacks and convenience foods that they have in stock at home. I do get extra nice yogurts, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries in for them. They never ask me for chocolate, but they have it at home

I'm with you GM. It's called 'Ma's rules' in our family! The girls remember being spoilt when they stayed with their DGPs. Actually, it's just a slackening rather than total rebellion

When visiting us, my mother would give my children sweets just before their meal. She also fed the dog from the table, something else we didn't like. We had a very good relationship, and I wonder why she felt the need to try to overturn our own not-very-strict rules. The children had enough goodies at appropriate times and the dog had her own food - she was a Labrador and we had to keep a close eye on her weight.
I adhered totally to my daughters' rules, but notice that one of them does exactly what my mother did, and it drives my grand-daughter mad.

My grandchildren are with me 2-3 days every week and they are all stick thin! Their eating habits depend on how they feel. Sometimes they are very hungry and can't get enough to eat and on other days they just seem to pick at their food. They are very fit, outdoorsy children who are always "on the go" . They spend most of their time at the stables with mum and when they are at mine they are forever cartwheeling, skipping and cycling they couldn't keep still long enough to get fat!

When my two were small I asked their Grandparents not to bring sweets when they visited so they thought of interesting little toys and novelties instead, tubes of bubble kits and Berol felt tip pens. When we visited Grans they made cakes etc and I was happy with that.

Let Grans spoil a bit but don't dish out crisps, chocolate bars or such daily as a right! Best of all don't keep them in the house.

I did take my first opportunity to feed DGS with spoonful's from the large ice creams I bought for myself and his mum when we went to the park. This was the first occasion it was warm enough and he was old enough to enjoy it. I had waited 8months for that experience.

When my DGS comes to visit from his home 200 miles away, I find it the perfect excuse to buy a jar of Nutella, for him, of course, hmm hmm. I love that stuff on toast

When I used to ask parents about their children's diets (because of rampant tooth decay) grandparents would frequently be blamed by the parents.... but then they would say that, wouldn't they
I can actually remember only one little girl who had dreadful teeth and was obese.... and her mum was obese too

I have two 30 somethings with no fillings. I think this may be due to not promoting sweets at all in the early years, (while you can control such things! )

This seems to have left them without having developed a "sweet tooth".

I thought it was grandparents job to spoil grandchildren, I know my grandmother did (and I didn't become overweight until after my DH died)

Only one of my GC is a little tubby. His parents got his weight down by strictly limiting the amount of tomato ketchup. There is a surprising amount of sugar in those bottles. However, he is partial to Nutella and I can hardly blame him for that.

I buy the odd package of choc. buttons but other then that stick to my old rules, sweets in strict moderation. I spoil mine with clothes, books and treats like visits to favourite places.
I had my children in the late 1970s and early 1980s and it was drummed into us then that sweets in excess were bad for teeth and weight.

My oldest DGS is 4 and has only in the past month or so started to eat ice cream. He didn't like the cold feeling in his mouth before. He is more than happy to snack on savoury stuff i.e. Cubes of cheese, cocktail sausages rather than sweets. Plus he's always on the go.
Younger DGS is dairy intolerant so no chocolate, pastry etc. for him and at 16mths he has never tasted a sweet.
I stick to mummy's rules 95% of the time. Rules get bent more on bed times rather than food.

I did/do spoil the grandchildren but its rarely been sweat treats except at Christmas they have picked the soft fruits out of the garden or had an ice lolly for treats in the Summer and in the Winter it was toys books etc..
The only one of the 7 that got fat was the one who lived with her Dad and other grandparents, her Dad was obese and she got to be really big but now she lives away at 19 she has slimmed right down to a nice size for her height. Some of the others got puppy fat but they are all now slim adults and the little 8yr old is like a stick although she eats for England but doesn't really have a sweet tooth she also likes to make cakes with me.

My own children were allowed sweets only on a Friday. When friends/relatives arrived bearing sweetie gifts the children simply put them away until Friday. I NEVER bought sweets from a supermarket checkout and the children loved their trip to Sid's shop on a Friday after school. The grandparents were very good at offering craft 'treats' or baking, outings etc. At Christmas and Easter the Friday rule was relaxed slightly.
As a grandparent I buy comics/books/craft things and very rarely buy sweets or ice creams - although yesterday I did buy the three year old a 'pop up' ice cream and was very impressed that he managed it without any mess.

Guilty as charged but I shall mend my ways ! However, my grandson is underweight if anything and his twin is average but I suppose it is a habit-forming problem.

That should be sweet treats

I never give them anything they're not allowed because I used to get really fed up with MiL stuffing my kids full of rubbish. I do have a cupboard with a few goodies in it but they know it's for treats only.

I bake cakes for their school lunchboxes and that goes down well.

My grandchildren are not great sweetie fans. They love fruit and raw vegetables. My younger grandaughter thinks she is pretends to be a horse and likes nothing more than raw carrot that she takes into her mouth before galloping running off.

ga we had Friday as sweetie day, too. My children remember it fondly, but they've relaxed it with their families. I did it because, when I was a child, my dad would bring sweets home on the Wednesday when he closed his shop for the afternoon. He would go in the sweet shop next door, and buy a few quarter pound bags of lemon sherbets, wine gums, caramels and the like, and divide them between us to have after tea.

Having a special sweetie day has meant less tooth decay for my children, two of whom have never had a filling and are well into their 30s.

- so it's no sugar lumps for her then?

I guess some older people might not be quite up to date with modern nutrition. Not like us gransnetters.

Sugar on strawberries? As if!!!

My grandchildren love coming to stay at grandmas.... because she is posh and makes them Sunday dinners nearly everyday... yep loads of fresh veg, chicken etc... I do give them sweeties sometimes, but they love a bowl of chopped fruit with yogurt over...

My DD and I do not like chocolate, in fact I do not like anything sweet, living in Belguim we get some strange comments about not eating chocolate, my DGS in 17 months and when he stays with me if he eats all his dinner he gets a very mini Cornetto as a treat, he then proceeds to pick the chocolate off and only eats the vanilla ice cream. I take him to the market on a Saturday morning and we buy lots of seasonal fruit and veg.He is quite small for his age but very active I live in the Granny flat in their house so we all stick to the same rules. My Mother used to give my oldest son sweets and biscuits just before meals, and it drove me mad and caused a lot of arguments.

Our DDs used to get Cornettos from my father as a treat when we visited them or they came to us. I couldn't afford them , ice cream and/or lollies for us were cheapos from Iceland in the freezer. The DDs are all as thin as sticks, but remember Grandpa's "treats" with affection.